Pilot Project to Use Mobile Phones to Connect Refugees with Families

Published on: 23rd Sep 2010

Note -- this news article is more than a year old.

In support of the hundreds of thousands of refugees who have fled from conflict and disaster areas, Ericsson and Refugees United, in partnership with the UNHCR and mobile operator MTN in Uganda, have launched a project to locate and reconnect refugee and IDP (Internally Displaced Persons) families through the use of mobile phones and internet.

The program enables refugees to use mobile phones to register and search for
loved ones via an anonymous database, and subsequently reconnect using SMS or
email. The information registered may be accessed by refugees and NGOs caring
for displaced people, and used to quickly put them in touch with their families.

António Guterres, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, says:
"The role of the private sector is increasingly important for humanitarian
assistance. Lending their knowledge and expertise to support the refugee cause
is crucial as many of these projects would otherwise be outside of our reach.
Today mobile phones are everywhere. Utilizing this readily available technology
for a good cause to enable refugees to connect with and reach out to family
members they have lost contact with is fundamental."

Presented to governments and business leaders at the Clinton Global
Initiative's annual meeting in New York, the initiative started with a pilot
deployment in northern Uganda at the beginning of September. The application is
now being extended to other camps in Eastern Africa.

According to David and Christopher Mikkelsen, Directors of Refugees United,
on a recent implementation visit with UNHCR to Uganda they witnessed long lines
of refugees waiting to sign up to the service to find missing family members.
Most refugees have used a mobile phone so they feel secure, they know how it
will work, and they give only information they are comfortable sharing, to
reconnect.

Today more than 4,500 refugees have registered, a considerably higher number
than possible with traditional methods.

According to UNHCR, there are over five million people of concern in East and
Horn of Africa, some 14 percent of the global number of people that UNHCR
assists around the world. UNHCR's main operations in this region include
Somalia, Sudan, Uganda, Kenya and Ethiopia.

Refugees United also provides the service via computers and internet, but
with more than five billion mobile subscriptions today the service via mobile
phones is highly relevant. In Africa less than two percent of people have access
to computers, compared to more than 45 percent that have a mobile phone.

In offering the service, Refugees United will create, maintain and update the
database while Ericsson will provide the mobile application, technology and
systems integration to enable the application in mobile networks. MTN will host
and offer the service on their networks, and UNHCR will help to implement the
project in the different refugee settlements. Refugees United is actively
supported by Delta Partners, who are providing strategic guidance to the
initiative.

"Our mission is to make use of mobile technology to eliminate a major
global issue, which is to reunite refugees with their loved ones", says Kai
Uwe Ricke, Partner and Chairman of Board of Directors, Delta Partners.

"It was amazing and heartwarming to be able to visit Uganda and to see
how thrilled the refugees were at the prospect of being able to reconnect with
their lost loved ones. It really magnified how powerful and life changing this
new technology is; it will change the lives of millions of refugees
worldwide," says Emmanuel Jal, musician and former Sudanese refugee and
child soldier.